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Vol. 50 | No. 24 | June 14, 2024
McAfee to be honored with Hometown Hero banner
Workshop presents possible scenarios for rotary
Summer Pan of RKG Associates, standing, works with attendees of a second public workshop. (Photo/Maureen Sullivan)
By Maureen Sullivan Assistant Editor WESTBOROUGH – The plans for the future of downtown are beginning to take shape, including potential changes to the rotary. During the Planning Department’s second public workshop on downtown, Rotary | 8
DEIB Committee reflects on accomplishments By Evan Walsh Reporter SHREWSBURY – The town’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Committee has big plans for this year. Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020, Shrewsbury formed a 25-member Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, which met for a year before delivering its final recommendations in November 2021. Among other things, the task force recommended the town create an official DEIB Committee. The committee was officially formed in August 2022, and the first meeting was DEIB | 9
Roofing
Decking
Corridor 9/495 MetroWest Chamber of Commerce’s new name
Westborough | 19 Algonquin seniors visit their elementary schools
NORTHBOROUGH/ SOUTHBOROUGH | 28
PFC. David McAfee
quin Regional High School in 1967. He worked at Wiles Poultry Farm, caddied at Indian Meadow Golf Club and was a member of Trinity Church. “He was a typical kid,” said his brother Paul McAfee. He was a good swimmer, too. Every year, the family would visit Lake Winnipesaukee. Paul and his two brothers would row onto the water, and one of them would swim behind the row boat. “The town has gone out of their way to do things to honor Dave over the years,” said Paul. The Ellsworth-McAfee Park is named in his honor. In 1977, the Ellsworth-McAfee Post, Veterans of Foreign Wars, dedicated the intersection of South Street and Northgate Road to McAfee. According to a 1968 article in the Northboro Star, the McAfees lived in Northgate. “Dave McAfee was a good boy, the type any parent would be proud of. He lacked nothing, including courage, and on the 22nd of Aug. this young man, a graduate of Algonquin Regional High School, became Northboro’s second casualty of the Vietnam War,” the Northboro Star article reads.
Westborough boys tennis heads to state finals
WESTBOROUGH | 34
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By Laura Hayes Managing Editor NORTHBOROUGH – It’s been over 50 years since Pfc. David McAfee was killed in the Vietnam War. However, a local organization has been working to honor his service through a Hometown Heroes banner. Around the holidays, Boros Cares 4 Troops (BC4T) founder Michelle Gillespie received a call from a woman from New Hampshire who had grown up in Northborough and knew McAfee. She expressed interest in having a banner made for him. “Although his family had moved out of town, we wanted to honor his memory,” Gillespie said. Since the Vietnam War, there have been three Northborough residents who have been killed in action, including McAfee, Neil Ellsworth and Brian Arsenault. The friend helped connect Gillespie to McAfee’s sister, Donna Record, who said she would love to have a banner in honor of her brother. Pfc. McAfee had enlisted in the Marines in February 1968. According to a 1968 article, he returned in July for a short leave before he was sent to Vietnam in August, two days before his birthday. He died of gunshot wounds from enemy fire on Aug. 22, 1968, in the Quang Tri Province. Serving the United States ran in the family. His father served, as did his brothers. McAfee liked playing baseball, and he also played football in high school. He graduated from Algon-
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